Railway-crossing guard



P. LU NDEL EL AILWAY CROSS Dem M325.

lNG GUARD Ai IL Q BY Patented Dec. 1, 1925.-

PAUL A. Lum-innen, or LINDEN', canrronnra.

nAmwAY-enossme GUARD.

Application ile Iebruary `24:,

T all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that l, PAUL A. LUNDnLan,

a citizen of the United' States,lresiding at Linden, county of San Joaquin, State of California, have invented certain new and useful Iniproveinents in Railway-Crossing Guards; and I do declare the following to 'he afull. clear, and exact description of the saine, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which forni a part of .this application.

This invention relates to devices to be in stalled onhighways adjacent railway crossings to prevent tratiic on the highways from passing onto the railway when a train is any Wheel with a pneumatic` quences,

approaching.

The principal object of my invention is' to provide a guard device preferably operated in conjunction with a suitable warning or stop signal, which when in operative position, will engage the Wheels of a vehicle trying topass the saine and will puncture tire, and will mutilate any solid rubber tire. This action may seein drastic, hutit must he remeirn bered that niany automobile drivers are. reckless and pay no attention to ordinary ywarning signals. Some of them never even trouble to slow down at crossings, prefer ring frequently, With disastrous conseto take a chance of beating the train to the crossing.

My device is especially intended to save such driversfroin their own carelessness, since once caught by the guards or even 'knowing of their .existence and operation the drivers would thereafterl come to a stop before the guards were reached rather than risk certain damage. to the tires of their cars.

The guards are only raised to their operative positions so that they will function as above stated when a trainapproaches and at other times are out of the way so that vehicles may run over the same without in- ,terference or damage either to the guards 'or to themselves.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple andinexpensive device and yetonewhich will be .exceedingly e-iiective' for the purpose for which it is designed.

These ob]ects'I accomplish by means of such structure and relative 'arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

'a guard 1925. serial No. 11,1...

In the dravvings similarlcharacters of ref.

erence indicate correspondingparts 4n1 the l several views: Figs. 1 and ot my improved guard structure as installed on a highway in the operative position and 2 are perspective. elevations '60 showing different arrangements of. the

guards.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged transverse section through a control box as on the line 3 3 of Fig. l.

Figi l is a similar view taken adjacent tooth as on the lin'e 4-4 of Fig. l.'

'In these Figures 3 and Il, the teeth are shown in their loweredor inoperative positions.

Referring now more particularly to the: 'characters of reference on the drawings, the numeral 1 denotes a rigid flat plate of suitable Width and extending thefull width ot .the highway .2 flush with the saine and located a certain distance ahead of a railway crossing the highway.

The plate is provided with a plurality of slots 3 spaced transversely of the road and extending longitudinally thereof in which slots fit sharp pointed teeth el. Them teeth nre non-turnab'ly fixed on a single shaft 5 which is journaled onto and under the plate adjacent Le ends ot the slots nearest the railway crossing.- These teeth'are sodisposed on the shaft and the latter disposed relative to the plate l in such a mannerv that when the teeth are lowered they will lie flush with the surface of the plate asv shown in Fig. l. teeth are then ledge l provided with the plate The plate is preferably formed with a shallow trough G'extending the full length thereof. a certain distance under the teeth so as to permit of a certain amount of dirt being taken care of withoutpreventing the proper seating of the teeth within the slots.

Owing to the location of the shaft with respect to the railway crossing, as above stated, when the teeth .are raised at a suifr able angle as shown in Figs. l and 2, t y

will project toward the wheels of the ve le on the high-way approaching the crossiilg. The teeth are of Ysufficient length so that when thus disposed they will not tend to flatten down with the pressure of O thereagainst but, instead will tend to pierce the tires, `and are suciently sharpto do this if the vehicle has suicient momentum.

a virheel ,The pointed ends of the supported on a depressed thesame time with the approach of a lvehicle in the opposite direction or after'it has once crossed the railway the guard teeth will 4he loweredwith the weight of the Wheels thereon so as not to offer resistance to' their passage. The guard' teeth are either spaced so .as to .catch any wheel, as shown in Fig. 1 or so that while one wheel may pass p clearr the other wheel will be shown in Fig. 2.V

The teeth. are normally held lowered as shown in Fig. 4 luy-suitable counteiiweight means 7 lixed on the shaft 5 preferably at both ends of the saine. These counter'- weights are V.located and enclosed in watercaught, as

tight housings'S mountedin connection with plate l at the ends thereof.

The teeth are preferably raised to an angle of about 45? by suitable means as hereinafter shown, and are prevented from -further upward movement by a stop arm 9 "fixed on the shaft 5 and adapted to abut against a fixed lug l0 .mounted in each,

'- tially level therewith, said plate having a housing 8.

A suitable form of'eleetric means 1s employed for raising the teeth, such meansv being operated by a train on the track ap-v' preaching the highway, the same character of trackeircuit beingr employed as islused in connection with the operation of the ordinary electrically actuated signal means commonly used.

In the present curved solenoid 1l, there being preferably one solenoid in each of the housings 8. 'The circuit wires l2 from the solenoids extend `from the housings to the track circuits. The

core 13 for each solenoid is mounted on a radial arm 14 fixed on the shaft 5, the core and solenoid being on a common arc and instance I have shown a the track the guards will be'lowered by the 'pressure of the -wheels of the vehicle thereon temporarily overcoming the action of the solenoid 'without damage, since the raising influence off the latter on the guard teeth is solely magnetic. I

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I have produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects ofv the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification vsets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, stillv in practice such deviations from such detail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claims. y

Having thus described my invention what I claim as newv and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A railway crossing guard. structure for highways comprising -a fiat 'late member adapted to extend across a hig waysubstanat one end of the slots, teeth fixed on the shaft and rormally seated in the slots, and means .ppl i to the shaft for turning the same to cause'the teeth to assume a pre- .determined angle relative to the plate.

2. A railway crossing guard structure for highways comprising a fiat plate member adapted to' extend across a highway substantially level therewith, said plate having a plurality of transversely spaced slots ex? tending lengthwise of the highway, a turnable shaft supported from and under the plate at one end of the slots, teeth fixed on the shaft and adapted to seat in the slots, means applied to one end of the shaft for turning the same to cause the teeth to he raised to'a predetermined angle, and independent means acting to cause the teeth to be lowered to a seating position in the slots p when the raising means ceases to function.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

PAUL A. LUNDBLAD. 

